The Cinema of Naruse Mikio

Abstract

Mr. Naruse was more than merely reticent: he was a person whose refusal to talk was downright malicious.-takaminehideko This is now the time for Naruse to reveal all the qualities and aspects of his cinema to the world. . . . the urgent need is to find a theory of film that suits this Age of Discovery.-hasumishigehiko Almost all the writing in English on Naruse Mikio begins with a lament about the critical neglect he has suffered, a neglect closely linked to the relative unavailability of his films.Except for infrequent and largely incomplete retrospectives in North America and Europe since the 1980s, most of Naruse's eighty-nine films remain unknown to contemporary cinephiles.Although a substantial amount has been written in Japanese on Naruse, little has been translated, and in popular cultural history his name remains a virtual secret.1 Within the tendency to rank directors in Japan, Naruse is frequently listed as the "number four" auteur, following Kurosawa, Mizoguchi, and Ozu in international-and Japaneserecognition.However, as Hasumi Shigehiko and Yamane Sadao point out, Naruse was not a "number one" sort of person, and he may partially have his own modesty to blame for his underappreciation.2Equally true, though, is the fact that Japanese producers did not see the need to promote films made for female audiences beyond their initial theatrical runs, and they did not see the export value in them either.3

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